Tuesday, December 31, 2013

What artists do the critics like - and how does that compare with the best seller list?

Unsurprisingly, the critics are not as enamoured with soundtracks as the album buying public. In fact there are no soundtracks on the critics list. Another difference - there are very few greatest hits collections or anthologies in the critics list.

1. The Beatles - 6 entries

No surprise that the Beatles are #1 - but Please Please Me is an interesting inclusion.

Monday, December 30, 2013

I started with the top 100 from the Rolling Stone 500 which was compiled in 2009."The RS 500 was assembled by the editors of Rolling Stone, based on the results of two extensive polls. In 2003, Rolling Stone asked a panel of 271 artists, producers, industry executives and journalists to pick the greatest albums of all time. In 2009, we asked a similar group of 100 experts to pick the best albums of the 2000s. From those results, Rolling Stone created this new list of the greatest albums of all time."I combined this with lists published in 2013 by New Musical Express and Entertainment Weekly to create my own meta-list.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

You might think that albums from the 70s would have outsold albums from the 80s, which in turn would have outsold albums from the 90s, etc simply because the older albums have been around longer and therefore would have had the chance to sell more.

The truth is just the opposite, as shown in the following chart. (Click to enlarge.)

Each decade had more big selling albums than the one before - until a wall was hit in the 2000s. The wall was the Net, as discussed in the prior post.

But what of the trend before then? Either: (a) the whole market was expanding from decade to decade; or (b) the market was concentrating (i.e. the big sellers were getting a bigger share of the pie); or a combination of (a) and (b). We can't tell from these data alone.

In this post we look at the year of release of the albums in the top 100 - shown in the chart below. (Click on the chart to enlarge.)

The first entry is in 1967 - the Beatles with Sgt Pepper. No Sinatra or Miles Davis. The big sellers are products of the modern era beginning in the late 60s.

Surprisingly, the biggest year was not in the glory days of the 60s or 70s - but was 8 entries in 1991. Rock, in all its manifestations, was going off - with 2 entries from G'n'R and entries from Metallica, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and U2. Here are the entries for 1991:

Guns n' Roses

Use
Your Illusion 2

Guns n' Roses

Use Your Illusion 1

Metallica

Metallica (Black Album)

Michael Jackson

Dangerous

Nirvana

Nevermind

Pearl Jam

Ten

Queen

Greatest Hits II

U2

Achtung Baby

Even though 1991 had the most entries, the half way mark was 1987. 49 entries were released in 1987 or earlier. 51 entries were released in 1988 or later.

Things die after 2002. There are no entries for 8 consecutive years until the final entry - 21 by Adele.

The bottom line is that the age of the blockbuster album is over and ended in 2002. The causes are probably threefold:

the internet era and the unbundling of albums made possible by iTunes and streaming services;

the democratisation of the means of music production with an attendant flood of product, diluting sales over a greater number of releases; and

greater competition for the entertainment dollar from entertainment forms that didn't exist in the heyday of the album.

There will be occasional exceptions (witness Adele), but they will be rare.

To conclude on a positive note - Adele's achievement is quite extraordinary. 21 was the biggest selling album in 2011 and 2012. It has continued to sell strongly in 2013. When this list was compiled (Feb 2013) it was already at equal 30th place in all time sales. I suspect that by now it is one of the top 20 biggest selling albums of all time. And she did it while keeping her clothes on.

The only other album from the 2000s and beyond to make the top 20 is 1 by the Beatles.

The biggest selling Beatles album of all time is: 1 - the greatest hits collection released in 2000. So far it has outsold Sgt Pepper, the next biggest selling. Then comes Abbey Rd, then two more greatest hits collections released in 1973 (originally as two LP sets), 1962-1966 and 1967-1970. Finally the White Album rounds out the half dozen.

2. Michael Jackson - 5 entries

Probably not too surprising. Thriller is, of course, the biggest selling album of all time - by a long way. Then come (in order of sales) Bad, Dangerous and Off the Wall. Finally the greatest hits collection HIStory. So MJ actually has one more original album in the top 100 than the Beatles.

3.= Celine Dion, Guns'n'Roses, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, Pink Floyd, U2 - 3 entries
Not a bad club. I was a little surprised to see Celine and the Gunners there. But combined with the Beatles and MJ this would be an ok desert island collection.

Celine Dion: Let's Talk About Love, Falling Into You, All the Way...a Decade of Song

Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon (#2 overall), The Wall, Wish You Were Here

U2: The Joshua Tree, The Best of 1980-1990, Achtung Baby9.= Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi, Britney Spears, Eagles, Eminem, Fleetwood Mac, Mariah Carey, Phil Collins, Queen, Simon & Garfunkel, Whitney Houston - 2 entries
Surprised to see Eminem here with The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show. The rest not so surprising. Only a couple of what I would call truly disposable artists - but I must admit to guilty pleasure with Backstreet Boys and Britney.

Backstreet Boys: Millenium, Backstreet Boys

Bon Jovi: Slippery When Wet, Crossroad (The Very Best of)

Britney Spears: Baby One More Time, Oops!...I Did it Again

Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, Hotel California

Fleetwood Mac: Rumours, Greatest Hits

Mariah Carey: Music Box, Daydream

Phil Collins: No Jacket Required, ...But Seriously

Queen: Greatest Hits, Greatest Hits II

Simon & Garfunkel: Greatest Hits, Bridge over Troubled Water

Whitney Houston: Whitney Houston, WhitneyEveryone else - 1 entry
An interesting bunch. Not suprising that most of these are on the list. But I was surprised that artists like Prince and Elton John didn't have more entries.

Abba

AC/DC

Ace Of Base

Adele

Alanis Morissette

Andrea Bocelli

Avril Lavigne

Billy Joel

Bob Marley

Boston

Bruce Springsteen

Carole King

Cranberries

Def Leppard

Dire Straits

Elton John

Eric Clapton

Garth Brooks

George Michael

Green Day

Hootie & The Blowfish

James Taylor

Journey

Kenny G

Linkin Park

Lionel Richie

MC Hammer

Meat Loaf

Metallica

Nirvana

Norah Jones

Oasis

Pearl Jam

Prince

Santana

Shania Twain

Spice Girls

Supertramp

The Police

Tracy Chapman

ZZ Top

Notable absences from the top 100 include David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones. I hypothesise that this is because they are relatively prolific artists who have been working over many decades - so their sales are diluted by being spread over many releases meaning that none make it onto the top 100.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Holidays are when I get to kick back from analysing businesses - and spend a few hours analysing music. I've found a few new sources of music data, so over the festive season I aim to write two series of posts.

The first is the highly contentious Best Albums of All Time. This will be a three way analysis comparing the 100 best selling albums of all time with the top 100s as voted by fans and critics.

The other series will be be a similar analysis just for the year 2013.